Despite repeated assurances by the officials from Agriculture Department to farmers that there would be sufficient stock of fertilizer, the long queues at the dealer shops and the Primary Agriculture Societies (PACS) centres in Nalgonda tell a different story.
Fearing that the delay in using the fertilizer may adversely affect the yield, farmers are seen waiting for long hours in queue at these centres for their turn to get a few bags.
There is anger and despair among the farming community as they were forced to spend number of days in queue lines and this is leading to rasta roko by them. Taking advantage of the situation some dealers are resorting to black marketing, allege the farmers.
Speaking to The Hindu , a woman farmer K. Lingamma, who has been waiting in the queue since morning on Monday, said that they cultivated paddy in four acres, but have not used fertilizer for the crop so far. She and her husband came to Nalgonda to purchase a few bags of urea last Saturday, but there was no stock at any of these centres and she doubts if she could get them today. The State government was supposed to send bout 95,000 metric tonnes of fertilizer, but the district received 25,000 metric tonnes less than its share.
The farmers allege that some of the dealers were selling one bag of urea at Rs. 370 as against the MRP of Rs. 284.
“Neither the district administration nor the public representatives conducted a review meeting to resolve the issue so far, the farmers lamented. The Vigilance Department turned totally inactive and was turning a blind eye to the goings on, the farmers allege.
Joint Director of Agriculture, B. Narasimha Rao, said that the farmers were using more than the suggested quantity of fertilizer which is one of the cause for the shortage.
